Criteria for Selecting a CMMS Software Solution

CMMS software has been developed over the past twenty years and now provides one of the broadest ranges of functionality in the industry including:

* Management of Assets
* Document storage and control
* Tracking of inventory
* Scheduliing of maintenance
* Integration with Microsoft Project
* Notification messaging via email or SMS

CMMS must be able to provide efficient management reporting, opimzation of the plant’s processes and an overall increase in production efficiency. A detailed analyisis is available in this CMMS white paper.

A sophisticated CMMS soluion will be modular in constructions since this provides the best balance between flexiblity and cost..

Managers particularly benefit from the familiar Windows-based user interface that enables the information dashboard to display the data required by the manager. This makes oversight and reporting highly efficient at any level of the organisation from the maintenance management engineer to the plant manager to the production director.
Software Modules.

Maintenance management requirements covered by these modules include:

* Plant management
* Maintenance scheduling
* Asset inventory
* Lubrication maintenance
* Digital documentation repository
* Reporting and analysis suite
* Inventory management
* Plant condition tracking
* Portable maintance communciation

Mobile Maintenance Management
Portable communciation device functionality is vital in many installations.
Enabling maintenance technicians to access data using a hand held PDA wherever they maybe..
Manager and maintenance engineers can remain in touch through hand held devices using text messaging as well as email.

Data Security
To be regarded as an enterprise class system, the CMMS must be implementable on a campus wide and multi-site basis . Based on proven Microsoft Windows platforms it is straight-forward for in-house IT teams to maintain the infrastructure. As you would expect from any enterprise-class CMMS software, security is fundamental to ensure secure storage and communication.

Solution implementation
Any system is only as strong as its implementation. Experinced maintenance process engineers and project management are available from the vendors and external CMMS consultancies to help you implement the system and get the most benefit from it. Their costs are well worth paying for and normally quickly recovered.